90 PRINCIPLES OF STOCK-BREEDING. 



and function, furnishes the best explanation of the 

 difficulty experienced by breeders in retaining and 

 developing, in their greatest perfection, two essential- 

 ly different functions in the dominant characteristics 

 of the same animal. 



In attempting to secure the highest development 

 of some particular quality, a gradual and, it may be, 

 an undesirable change is so often observed in the 

 qualities depending on the functional activity of some 

 other part or parts of the system as to lead to the be- 

 lief that the quality that is retained is incompatible 

 with a high development of the function that is im- 

 paired in its activity. 



A deficiency in the production of milk has often 

 been noticed in animals that are remarkable in the 

 tendency to fatten. Mr. Price, a noted breeder of 

 Hereford cattle, says : " Experience has taught me 

 that no animals possessing form, and other requisites 

 giving them a great disposition to fatten, are calcu- 

 lated to give much milk ; nor is it reasonable to sup- 

 pose they should it would be in direct opposition to 

 the law of Nature. Had I willed it twenty years ago, 

 my belief is that I could, by this time, have bred 

 twenty cows, purely from my own herd, which should 

 have given a sufficient quantity of milk for (paying) 

 dairy purposes ; and I am equally confident that, in 

 the same period, I could have bred a similar number 

 that would not, at any time, have given twenty quarts 

 of milk per day among them. 



" I feel confident I could effect either of these 

 objects much more easily and certainly than I could 

 blend the two properties in the same animal, retain- 



